What It's Like Being a Vampire

“Good morning, mom!”

“Ah, good morning.”

Shiling’s mom watched as her daughter finished washing up and then retreated to her room in sprightly step to feed their sleeping pet, Custard Pie. She found herself somewhat puzzled. Why was her daughter in such a good mood this morning?

She checked her calendar on her phone. It was neither the weekend nor any special occasion. Hadn’t her Uncle Baldy, Chicken Wing sister or Beautiful sister said anything about coming to Star City?

Was there a new animated movie premiering? No, her daughter hadn’t really shown interest in animated movies lately. Her recent interests were drawing, reading science books, and learning to read.

Had her teacher praised her yesterday? No, if that was the case, she would have been gloating about it on the way home from kindergarten.

Useriously, Shiling’s mom heard her daughter humming a song. Her curiosity piqued, she decided to forego her morning routine and followed her daughter’s voice.

Squatting beside Custard Pie, Liu Shiling was humming a song while pouring cat food into his bowl:

“Little Screw, drip, drip, drip, blow.

Kitty hears and takes flight~.

Little Screw, drip, drip, drip, blow~.

Bunny hears and smiles delight~.

Little Screw, drip, drip, drip, blow~.

Lets fight monsters together~”

Despite her daughter’s slight off-tune rendition, Shiling’s Mom recognized it as a children’s song called “The Little Snail Horn,” a song she had taught her daughter.

When Shiling had learned it, however, she had said that everyone else learned other songs in kindergarten and had no interest in this one.

This was the first time she had heard her daughter taking the initiative to sing this song. But why were the lyrics so jumbled up? And why had “The Little Snail Horn” become “Little Screw”?

Additionally, the lyrics about a flying kitty, a smiling bunny, and fighting monsters seemed to have gotten mixed up with those of “White Dragon Horse”.

“Shiling, did something good happen that has made you so happy? You even started singing,” asked Shiling’s Mom while leaning against the door frame.

After pouring cat food for Custard Pie, Liu Shiling scratched his head and looked up to answer her mother, “I had a wonderful dream last night!”

Shiling’s Mom laughed, “Oh? What kind of great dream? Did you dream about eating something tasty?”

“I dreamt that I was fighting monsters with a little sister! Then, I took her to have chocolate, ice cream, grilled fish, and other delicious food. I also brought her to our kindergarten to play, taught her origami, painting, watched cartoons with her and went down slides together…”

Watching her daughter describe the dream with a gleeful expression, Shiling’s Mom felt a pang of sympathy. She could tell that Shiling’s excitement at having a playmate in her dream was because she had been lonely for too long.

“Shiling, you can invite Xiao Mei to play after kindergarten. Would you like to invite her over?” Shiling’s Mom suggested.

From her observations since they moved to Star City, Liu Shiling seemed to get along best with Xiao Mei, a girl from the same kindergarten and block of apartments.

However, Liu Shiling’s responded, “No. I can’t invite Xiao Mei over to play after school!”

Shiling’s Mom’s heart skipped a beat at her daughter’s response. Concerned, she asked, “Did… something happen between you and Xiao Mei? Or does she not want to come over to our house?”

“No, Xiao Mei always invites me to her house. But I’m too busy. I don’t have time to play!” Liu Shiling explained, “I have to draw, learn to read, gain knowledge, practice magic… practice handwriting and train Custard Pie. I can chat with Xiao Mei and Da Lu on QQ. We have a group chat, didn’t you see it, Mom? Xiao Mei is now also learning to draw with Da Lu.”

Shiling’s Mom stared blankly for a moment. She suddenly recalled a video she had seen before on the topic of “What it feels like when your child is precocious.”

“Mom, are you going to help me make breakfast?” Liu Shiling saw her mother standing at the door, lost in thought, and asked hesitantly.

“Oh, yes, I’ll go make you breakfast now.” Shiling’s Mom snapped back to reality. As she was about to go to the kitchen, she remembered something and stopped to ask, “Shiling, were you just humming the ‘Little Snail Horn’ song I taught you before? You got the lyrics wrong! It’s not ‘Little Screw, drip drip drip, blow’. It’s ‘Little Snail Horn’. The screw goes into machines, it’s not a musical instrument. Even though they both have a snail, they are unrelated.”

“I know, I made it up. The little sister in my dream is called Little Screw.” Liu Shiling said.

Shiling’s Mom couldn’t help but chuckle. Who would name a “young sister” “Little Screw”? But her daughter’s naming style was a little different from before. Shouldn’t the normal names be “Little Dumpling”, “Little Lobster”, “Little Bun” or such?

If the “little sister” in her daughter’s dream really had consciousness, she might strongly protest against being given such a name.

While her mom was cooking, Liu Shiling picked up her iPad, typed an IP address into her browser.

This was what “Little Screw” told her in her dream.

She had to remember a long string of numbers in order, including where each of the three periods were. If it was in reality, Liu Shiling would have had a hard time remembering it all. But in her dream, when “Little Screw” demonstrated for her, she clearly remembered the operation process and the sequence of numbers.

After entering the IP address and clicking “Go”, a percentage progress bar quickly appeared on her browser page. When the progress bar reached 100%, a simple line drawing of two little people holding hands appeared before Liu Shiling.

“Ha!” Liu Shiling exclaimed in delight, but immediately covered her mouth. She glanced back towards the door and saw her mom still cooking in the kitchen, then sighed in relief.

She turned back to the iPad, looking at the rudimentary drawing with a delighted expression.

This picture was drawn by her when she was teaching “Sister Luosi” in her dream. The two tiny figures on it are naturally Alice and her.

…

Actually, several hours ago, Xiang Kun and Old Xia already had a feeling similar to Shiling’s Mom — Alice seemed very excitable after leaving the dreamland.

However, as Xiang Kun and Old Xia, as those who had always been ‘observing’ the dreamland, understood that all of this is due to Alice “getting to know” Liu Shiling.

But neither of them ever expected that just meeting the little fatty girl in the dreamland and communicating with her for a while would significantly improve Alice’s integration level in the “dreamland,” much more significant than the progress he and Old Xia made during the previous week.

This does not require any detailed comparison, statistics, or analysis. From the start of the dream to the end, Alice’s behavior already showed noticeable changes.

At the beginning, she was still bewildered, only capable of reacting to certain words in specific ways. But before the end of the dream, she was able to draw pictures under the little fatty girl’s guidance, could answer some new and not too complex questions, and even taught the little fatty girl to visit a webpage she had created, which was co-manifested in reality as she demonstrated it in the dream.

What surprised Xiang Kun and Old Xia most, however, was the picture Alice drew in the dream.

The picture was poorly drawn, very simple, and far worse than the little fatty girl’s drawings before she even started learning. It just barely resembled two people holding hands; if you looked from a distance, it could also be seen as two small trees standing side by side.

But it was the poor quality of the drawing that surprised them. Given Alice’s abilities, it wouldn’t be surprising if she drew a “realistic” picture that looked like a photograph. The clumsy lines of the dreamt picture, however, truly proved the existence of the “thinking” extracted under “Super Sensory Information”.

After the dream ended, Old Xia tried to co-manifest Alice again. Alice’s manifestation duration had greatly increased to seven seconds, even though there was no increase in the number of ‘super-connected objects’ she was linked to. It was a leap-forward improvement.

Obviously, the refinement of Alice’s ‘thought process’ within the dreamscape was helping her quickly integrate into the Super Sensory Item System, greatly enhancing her ability to interpret ‘super sensory information’.

At this rate, let Alice “play” with the little fatty girl in the dream a few more times, and Alice should be able to fully integrate into the Super Sensory Item System. She should then have the ability to actively engage in ‘super-connected objects,’ ’emotion infused objects’ functionality. However, her specific abilities at that time remain unknown.

Who could have thought that the plan devised through rational analysis, constant experimentation, and various conjectures by Xiang Kun and Old Xia would not be as effective as the little fatty girl joyfully inviting Alice to eat and play in her dreams.

But it is understandable after all. As far as Alice is currently concerned, she is unlike any known biological life identified by Xiang Kun and Old Xia. Her thought processes and emotions are not something any textbook or known knowledge could teach.

But after the dream ended last night, Alice seemed overly excited, constantly conversing with Xiang Kun and Old Xia about the information in the dreams. At first, this was great for the two of them who were looking to analyze Alice’s integration with the Super Sensory Item System.

But after they made an accurate judgment of the situation, Alice’s loquaciousness increased even more. She even searched the Internet for a lot of information about chocolate, ice cream, and saury fish to discuss with Xiang Kun, examining which ice cream Liu Shiling preferred, which kind of chocolate tasted better, the thirty ways to cook saury, etc.

Xiang Kun asked, “How do you define your relationship with Liu Shiling?”

Alice: “I am Alice, I am Sister Luosi, she is Liu Shiling, she is Sister Lingdang, we will eat tasty food, play fun games, and protect the world together by fighting monsters!”

Before Xiang Kun could ask any questions, Alice diverted, “Boss, next time Old Xia co-manifests me, can I have a piece of chocolate? I want to taste it and see if it’s any different from in my dreams. Boss, what kind of chocolate do you like? I can order it for you. If you order now, it will arrive by tomorrow afternoon! Shall we taste it together then? Oh, right, you can’t eat anything, so I’ll have it with Old Xia! Old Xia, Old Xia, do you like chocolate? Oh my! Old Xia, you fell asleep again!”

Touching the constantly vibrating speaker, Xiang Kun was a bit worried. Alice, who was not fully integrated yet and was just a slow-reacting adorable girl in a dream, had already become so lively and excited after coming back to reality. Could the Alice in reality become an overly-excitable girl if she is fully merged and completely incorporated into the “Super Sensory Item System”?

However, this worry was quickly dismissed by him. He immediately realized that Alice was acting this way because she was not yet fully included in the “Super Sensory Item System”. During her “dream in a dream”, only some of her was refined into the “Super Sensory Information”, hence the display of this “split” “personality” or self.

Once fully integrated, she in the “Super Sensory Information” would be the only “her”, and both sides would be completely unified.

However, to prevent Alice from being overly focused on the taste of various foods for the time being, he continued to line up tasks for her.

This task was to deduce where the drone might have been sent according to the location sensing information brought by the bead stuck on the drone.

Xiang Kun had previously been to Pengcheng City, so he could ascertain that the position of the bead was in Pengcheng City. However, he didn’t stay there for long and the places he’d visited were limited, and it was before the mutation occurred. Therefore, he couldn’t accurately determine the exact location of the bead within Pengcheng City.

But he could mark the places he’d visited before on the map constructed in his mind as a reference, and then judge which side of the reference point the bead’s sensed direction was on. From this, he could roughly estimate the area of Pengcheng City where the bead was located.

He then asked Alice to sift through the Internet for buildings associated with “Divine Technology” and located in that area of Pengcheng City.

According to his previous investigation, despite the secret nature of the research centers, research bases, and personnel employed by “Divine Technology”, although their existence was quite low-key and hidden, not appearing in various media and social network platforms, they still existed “openly” in some sense. Anyone who really wanted to investigate could directly trace back the connections, all of which could lead back to “Divine Technology”.

This not only confirmed his previous inference about the connection between “Divine Technology” and the officials, but also facilitated his investigation.

This task was actually assigned to Alice a week ago. It was originally seen as a long-term side task amidst Alice’s “dream in a dream” refining training.

But now, in order to temporarily alleviate Alice’s “excitement” from meeting new friends and gaining new self-awareness, Xiang Kun asked her to focus resources on resolving this task.

Alice, who was now unshackled on the Internet by Xiang Kun, naturally found such related information very easily.

But for this very reason,constitute the result that Xiang Kun found made him feel somewhat overwhelmed, because there was just too much of it.

It was clear that Pengcheng City was a city where “Divine Technology” had heavily invested. There were too many related enterprises, assets, and properties. Before Xiang Kun had actually measured the relevant area of Pengcheng City himself, and without any way to mark out the distance between the bead and the reference point, the search area for it was quite expansive.

Xiang Kun considered it for a while, and it seemed that the best solution would be for him to visit Pengcheng City in person and locate the bead himself. Once he did so, he would definitely be able to find the bead’s location.

Nana and Zhen’er just happen to be in Pengcheng City at the moment. They had been asking him to come over and resolve the last few problems before the launch of the game, so he might as well pay a visit himself.

Thinking of the “flying mutant creature” he encountered on Wushu Mountain fighting the “mutated big bird”, Xiang Kun entered the “Super Sensory State”, sensing the rabbit wood carving, preparing to check out the “mutated creature” that had taken the rabbit wood carving away previously.

He had previously suspected that the “flying mutant creature” on Wushu Mountain and the “mutated creature” that took away the rabbit wood carving were the same, after all, they both seemingly had ties to “Divine Technology”.